The AIAC Podcast: "After the Uprising"

Date: September 18, 2025
Host: William (Will) Shoki
Guest: Sungu Oyo, Kenyan writer, activist, community organizer, and 2027 presidential candidate

Episode Overview

This episode centers on the aftermath and ongoing significance of Kenya’s unprecedented wave of popular protests sparked by the 2024 finance bill, situating the discussion within the broader failure of the post-2010 democratic settlement and the challenges and potentials of leftist, mass-based organizing in Kenya. Will Shoki hosts Kenyan activist and presidential candidate Sungu Oyo, unpacking his political journey, the deeper roots of Kenyan unrest, and the strategic vision of the newly-formed Kenya Left Alliance. They explore how to transform the current moment of collective mobilization and disillusionment into sustainable political change, and what a meaningful progressive agenda for the Kenyan people looks like.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Introduction and Context: The Ground Shifting in Kenya

• [00:18]–[03:47]
  • Will describes the “politically explosive time” during AIAC’s visit to Nairobi and the historic character of the 2024–2025 Kenyan protests.
  • Protests were triggered by a finance bill, but grounded in much deeper economic hardship and systemic elite impunity.
  • Sungu Oyo introduced as both an activist rooted in mass struggle and as a leading face of a new, anti-capitalist, Pan-African, and feminist politics.
  • Sungu announced as a 2027 presidential candidate, representing radical alternatives to the status quo: "He's coming for Ruto's job." (Will, 02:53)

2. Sungu Oyo’s Political Roots and the Birth of the Kenya Left Alliance

• [03:47]–[06:19]
  • Sungu details his progression from student activism to co-founding movements like Kongamano Lamapinduzi, “Congress of the Revolution,” in response to problems needing political solutions.
  • The Kenya Left Alliance emerges as a coalition of all progressive forces for social and political transformation.

"A lot of the problems we were experiencing in our communities were actually political, and they needed political solutions."
(Sungu Oyo, 05:07)

3. Moments of Awakening: Protest as Protracted Struggle

• [06:19]–[10:38]
  • Sungu’s politicization was gradual, reinforced by concrete defeats and partial victories—especially around tax justice in 2013.
  • He recounts learning that “organizing is an eternal process,” underscoring the perpetual vigilance required in people’s movements.

"Our struggle is a continuous struggle... we have to be eternally vigilant and that organizing is an eternal process."
(Sungu Oyo, 09:56)

4. The Failure of the 2010 Democratic Settlement

• [10:38]–[15:49]
  • The optimism of the 2010 constitution, with its robust Bill of Rights and safeguards, has dissipated, with elites systematically eroding its progressive clauses.
  • Sungu uses a striking metaphor from Kenya’s former Chief Justice:

    “We backed a new constitution. We backed a baby, then gave it to child traffickers to raise it.”
    (Sungu Oyo referencing William Mutungu, 13:00)

5. Why Did the Protests Explode in 2024?

• [15:49]–[23:15]
  • The Kenyan state is described as a "business," a neocolonial formation working “perfectly”—but for elite interests.
  • Underlying dynamics:
    • Skyrocketing youth unemployment (67% by 2022)
    • Erosion of public institutions, growing homelessness due to mass evictions
    • Soaring costs for university and basic goods amid deepening debt crisis
  • The 2024 finance bill—seen as class warfare—was a breaking point; “Ruto must go” emerged as the unifying rallying cry.

"People are not just talking about Ruto the individual... they were talking about all the institutions that surround him and that enable this economic violence."
(Sungu Oyo, 20:06)

6. The Structure of Kenyan Economic and Political Power

• [23:15]–[31:42]
  • No regime since independence has pursued radical economic transformation. The system prioritizes foreign investment and elite interest, not sovereignty.
  • Sungu provides historical context tracing inequity back to settler colonialism, the failed “Million Acre Scheme,” and enduring land dispossession.
  • Today’s Nairobi: “a land of 50 billionaires and 50 million beggars.”

"At a fundamental level, the land has remained in the hands of foreign concerns and foreign corporations... Mining concerns are in the hands of foreign companies. The fishing rights at the coast are not in the hands of local enterprises..."
(Sungu Oyo, 28:58)

• Privatization and deepening inequality lay groundwork for the “leap in the collective consciousness” enabling current mobilization.

7. Composition and Character of the Uprising

• [31:42]–[40:32]
  • The protests, while branded as a "Gen Z revolt," are multi-generational and cross-class.
  • Middle class involvement is notable—many were “one paycheck away from poverty.”
  • Attempts by state and media to narrowly frame the uprising as “Gen Z” are rebuffed as both strategic and misleading.
  • Underlying the protests: “The system had deprived them of everything, including joy.”

“They were basically struggling for the creation of new worlds: worlds of love, worlds of joy, and most importantly, worlds of dignity."
(Sungu Oyo, 38:51)

• The ruling class quickly realigned to protect its collective interests, further exposing elite consensus against popular demands.

8. The Kenya Left Alliance: Vision and Strategy

• [40:32]–[46:50]
  • The Kenya Left Alliance (KLA) is anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist, feminist, and Pan-Africanist.
  • It’s a coalition, aggregating the forces needed for mass impact, recognizing that “oppressed people have never won without organization.”
  • The KLA’s minimum program focuses on:
    • Land reform (implementing a land ceiling per the Constitution)
    • Housing, education, health, food sovereignty (challenging corporate control, e.g. seed laws favoring Monsanto)
    • Sovereignty (removing foreign military bases, addressing the debt crisis)
  • 2027 elections are a tactical opportunity, not the strategy; the goal is to “work towards dignity for the Kenyan people.”

"For us, at the most fundamental level, the starting point is working towards dignity of the Kenyan people."
(Sungu Oyo, 45:20)

9. On Electoral Politics and Movement Strategy

• [46:50]–[52:35]
  • Sungu addresses left skepticism toward elections; sees them as one tactical avenue, not an end in themselves.
  • The prime challenge: breaking ethnicized, clientelist politics and organizing around ideas and needs.
  • 2022 voter turnout collapse signaled mass disillusionment; KLA seeks to mobilize the 8+ million who abstained.
  • Vital to contest as an organized front, not just as scattered individuals:

    "The elections are only a tactic. They are not the strategy."
    (Sungu Oyo, 52:27)

10. Paying for a Progressive Agenda: Tackling Corruption and Waste

• [52:35]–[58:42]
  • Sungu rebuffs the “how will you pay for it?” challenge, citing endemic corruption and wastage as the real obstacles.
  • Example: the Auditor General estimates $2 million disappears daily through graft; wasteful presidential travel compounds the problem.
  • Basic services (healthcare, water, education) are affordable if theft is curbed and resources prioritized for people’s needs.

"It is not that the state is unable to provide these services because there's no resources. The situation is that the state is unable to provide basic services because it is unwilling..."
(Sungu Oyo, 54:53)

11. Defining Success for the Kenya Left Alliance

• [58:42]–[62:50]
  • KLA will contest all seats, aiming to consolidate progressive forces, deepen political education, and prefiguratively demonstrate alternatives—beginning at local/municipal levels.
  • Success isn’t just about electoral victories, but about building institutions, shifting discourse, and expanding political imagination:

    "We also have to have this kind of liberated territories where we can set these prefigurative examples..."
    (Sungu Oyo, 62:27)

Notable Quotes & Moments

• On the permanence of social struggle:
  "Organizing is an eternal process." (Sungu Oyo, 09:56)

• On post-independence betrayal:
  "[The postcolonial state] is working perfectly. It's just that it wasn't designed to work for the people." (Sungu Oyo, 16:53)

• On the wider meaning of protest:
  "They were basically struggling for the creation of new worlds: worlds of love, worlds of joy, and most importantly, worlds of dignity." (Sungu Oyo, 38:51)

• On the role of elections:
  "The elections are only a tactic. They are not the strategy." (Sungu Oyo, 52:27)

• On the basic requirements for progress:
  "Our people are asking for the most basic of things. They're asking for education, healthcare, water. They're not asking to go for holiday in the Bahamas." (Sungu Oyo, 58:07)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• Sungu’s introduction & political journey: [03:47]–[06:19]
• Tax justice movement & lessons: [08:48]–[10:38]
• Failure of the 2010 constitutional promise: [12:22]–[15:49]
• Roots and triggers of the 2024 uprising: [15:49]–[23:15]
• The structure of Kenyan political economy: [23:15]–[31:42]
• Protest composition and the “Gen Z” myth: [31:42]–[40:32]
• Kenya Left Alliance vision: [41:52]–[46:50]
• Elections as tactic: [46:50]–[52:35]
• Addressing the "how will you pay for it" critique: [52:35]–[58:42]
• Defining movement success: [58:42]–[62:50]

Conclusion

Sungu Oyo’s candid analysis—rooted in history and present struggle—offers a critical perspective on both the causes of Kenya’s ongoing crisis and the possibilities for forging a new, mass-based, left alternative. This episode goes beyond a simple account of recent protests, examining their deep roots, questioning facile media narratives, and exploring the strategic dilemmas of genuinely transformative politics in a neocolonial context.

For KLA, and for Oyo, the work ahead is about much more than winning an election: it’s about building movements, institutions, and new “worlds of dignity” out of the current ferment.